National Seed Swap Day on Saturday

Swap Seeds For A Better Garden This Year

Gardener’s have traditionally loved to trade with each other: tips ad advice, seeds and plants, even tools of the trade. It is no surprise that as the seed supplies available from seed companies have been shrinking, that grassroots gardeners have stepped up to organize seed swaps.

National Seed Swap Day

Last Saturday of January.

These are great places to go to let others have some of your abundance and to try out the seeds of someone else’s harvests.

Gathering in late summer, saving seed

Gather and store your seeds, then participate in a local seed swap in January. Just in time to start some new plants for your coming garden season.

It is a wonderful way to obtain little known heirloom seeds from local gardener’s such as yourself, and pick up some helpful growing tips, as well.

Why Have A National Seed Swap Day?

The winning logo design by Matthew Smith of Richwood, OH. Join in to increase the available seedbank, to make new gardening friends, and participate in one of the fun aspects of growing plants.

The winning logo design by Matthew Smith of Richwood, OH. Join in to increase the available seedbank, to make new gardening friends, and participate in one of the fun aspects of growing plants.

An Old Idea Takes On New Enthusiasm

The first annual Washington Gardener Seed Exchange was held on January 26, 2006.

Seed Saving Bible

No small chapter on keeping seed, this is an entire tome that covers the A to Z. I think one reason we hesitate to do something like preserving seeds for ourselves is because we don’t know enough about it.

What A Seed Swap Looks Like

Remember

Add Seedlings For Variety And Convenience

Swap Tips

Make a list of your desired seeds in advance. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement, forgetting your original list of wanted seeds.

Write down your list to keep focused.

There is no one way to gather and keep seeds. If you wish to build your own collection of heirlooms and special varieties, a book with the various techniques and the growing directions for at least a hundred kinds of common home garden plants is a great start.

Learn How To Observe This Day

Gardeners can benefit each other and build a seed bank

Seed Preservation is Quite Easy

It is so easy to save seeds, but there are a few things to remember:

(1) One thing is to keep the seeds dry. They germinate with moisture, so it makes sense to keep seeds dry as you save and store them.

Simply keeping seeds is often a matter of collecting and keeping your seeds dry. The reason a seed swap is so helpful is the chance to meet with other gardeners for tips and to learn from their seed saving techniques- plus the chance to come by seeds you may otherwise not collect or grow, on your own.

(2) The temperatures for storage should stay on the cool side, but most seeds are best if not frozen.

The directions for saving and storing seeds use words like “often” or “most” since the majority of seeds are gathered and behave, once stored, in the same way. But not all do. If you know what conditions your desired seeds may need, you can preserve them until they are needed without any trouble.

(3) Some seeds need special conditions. Whether they need scarification, or freezing, certain light conditions or not, there are directions to help you have success. Key to success: following the directions for the desired seed.

Look up information on the seeds you plan to save. For newbies it is probably a good idea to stay with the common, simpler types of seeds.

If you like a challenge, however, go ahead and try something that needs scarification, time in winter conditions to sprout.

How to Organize a Community Seed Swap
The benefits of swapping seeds locally are many: save money, connect with your community, find rare and locally adapted seeds, preserve biodiversity, learn from experienced gardeners – the list goes on and on. So here are a few tips for organizing a

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I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

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